Paris (France) (AFP) – The price of diesel has already fallen by “12 to 18 cents” per liter in “more than half” of service stations in France, in connection with the government destocking of strategic reserves, Commerce Minister Serge Papin said on Monday.

Published on: 02/11/2026 - 10:31 Modified on: 02/11/2026 - 15:44

The French government announced in October that consumers would benefit from such reductions from November 1 thanks to the sale at cost price to distributors of barrels of diesel from strategic stocks.

“The distributors are playing the game since today, this [Monday] morning, as we speak, there are more than half of the stations which have lowered prices by 12 to 18 cents,” declared Mr. Papin on RTL.

“This means that the vast majority of French people have access to a price which is lowered,” he added, adding that “half of the stations could supply” more than half of the French, or even “80%” according to him.

However, part of the sector complains of not having benefited from stock clearances at the same time as supermarkets or TotalEnergies.

Francis Pousse, of the Mobilians network, which notably represents independent service stations, denounced on Sunday "unbearable" price differences. The government's commitments "do not correspond to actions", he lamented.

“I don’t understand why he says that,” Mr. Papin reacted on Monday. “We developed a system, precisely with Francis Pousse”, of zero-interest loans, to help small independent stations to lower their prices, he recalled.

The latter will be able to do so "perhaps not this (Monday) morning at 9 a.m., but in any case during the week", assured the minister.

With "the long-distance driver bonus" of 100 euros and taking into account the "lowest price of the lowest distributor", the price of a liter of diesel can be "1.75 euros", he insisted.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu also welcomed on

The state will ensure that the “advantage” linked to the release of 10 million barrels of diesel from its strategic stocks is “fully passed on in the price paid by consumers”, affirmed Mr. Lecornu.

While the average liter of diesel in the middle of last week was 2.38 euros/liter, it fell by almost 10 cents per liter on average to almost 2.29 euros per liter on average, according to an analysis by AFP of public data covering 8,642 stations.

These figures constitute an "average" between those who have "not yet decided to implement the measure and those who have done so", underlined to AFP Philippe Casbas, president of the professional oil tankers union Ufip.

The impact of the price drop could differ over time from one brand to another, according to Mr. Casbas, who would be "not surprised" if a brand like Avia, which started with a reduction of around 12 cents, increased its discount.

Conversely, a brand like Leclerc, which announced a drop of 21 cents on Sunday, could revise this advantage downward at some point, according to Mr. Casbas.

© 2026 AFP

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